Music: Best Albums of the Year Series: 2015

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1966: The Beatles - Revolver
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1971: Led Zeppelin - IV
1972: Neil Young - Harvest
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1974: Supertramp - Crime of the Century
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1976: Eagles - Hotel California
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1981: Rush - Moving Pictures
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1984: Metallica - Ride the Lightning
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
1986: Metallica - Master of Puppets
1987: Guns 'n Roses - Appetite for Destruction
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
1989: Pixies - Doolittle
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1992: Alice in Chains - Dirt
1995: Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
1997: (TIE) Radiohead - OK Computer // Foo Fighters - The Color and the Shape
1998: (TIE) Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill // System of a Down - System of a Down
1999: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
2001: The Strokes - Is This It
2002: Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
2005: Coldplay - X & Y
2006: Tool - 10,000 Days
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
2009: Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
2010: The National - High Violet
2011: No definitive winner
2012: (TIE) Kendrick Lamar - good kidd, M.A.A.D. city // Deftones - koi no yokan
2014: Behemoth - The Satanist

1968: The Beatles - The White Album (14 votes)

2nd Place (TIE): The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland (9 votes)
2nd Place (TIE): Velvet Underground - White Light, White Heat
4th Place (TIE) 4 albums with 7 votes

Not even remotely surprising, and the Beatles make if 5 out of 5 for polls in the 60's. I'll be running a cumulative 1900-1964 poll at some point, and I anticipate they'll take that down, too. Only Paranoid was able to stop the beast, when it beat Let it Be.

2015 is an excellent year for music, and features one of the greatest albums ever recorded - an album which has, in fewer than 5 years, shot up collective critical rankings to become a darling of top-10 lists. We'll see if HF shares that consensus. It's the latest year we'll be polling (with the exception of the 2016-2020 cumulative poll). But we're getting there, folks. We're on the home stretch now.

11/12: 1993
11/14: 1978
11/16: 2003

Click to read more...

 

[Teemu]

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
Jamie xx - In Colour
CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye

I'll be running a cumulative 1900-1964 poll at some point

One man's opinion, but you might want to break this up into at least 2 chunks, as the late 50s (especially 56 and 59) are pretty stacked.

 

[MoreOrr]

Endless Forms Most Beautiful - Nightwish

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Chris Stapleton - Traveller

 

[Azathoth]

Kudos to the OP for nominating Mgla.

 

[Ceremony]

Other - Music Complete by New Order

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

1. Buckethead – Happy Halloween: Silver Shamrock (Impossible not to put this project first here: it's 32 albums released from October 1st – 31 Days Til Halloween: Visitor From the Mirror – to November 1st – 365 Days Til Halloween: Smash / of course it's uneven but most of them are better than a lot of bands' whole discography)
2. Balázs Pándi, Mats Gustafsson, Thurston Moore & Merzbow – Cuts of Guilt. Cuts Deeper
3. Dither – Dither Plays Zorn - John Zorn’s Olympiad - Volume 1
4. Many Arms & Toshimaru Nakamura ‎– Many Arms & Toshimaru Nakamura
5. Les Rhinocéros – Les Rhinocéros III
6. Natural Snow Buildings – Terror's Horns
7. Lightning Bolt – Fantasy Empire
8. John Zorn – Hen To Pan (Zorn has quite a few other albums in the year, The True Discoveries Of Witches And Demons & Simulacrum are ok and might have ranked in the bottom part of this list, the others I didn't care to listen to)
9. Won James Won – The Drisneyland Chronicles Vol.II / Won James Won – Spit Holes (4 Eyes of UDO) (EP) (This is real hard to rank, it is in parts absolutely amazing – the 32 min song Capitale Ephemerica (Dante Moscow Revisited) would have made a great album by itself – but also has a load of real weaker stuff, the EP particularly goes in all possible directions – still, the fact that the same band does all this is in itself impressive)
10. Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter 3: River Run Thee

HMs:
Knifeworld – Home of the Newly Departed
Zu – Cortar Todo
Benjamin Biolay, Nicolas Fiszman & Denis Benarrosh – Trenet
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress
Fred Frith – Field Days (The Amanda Loops)
Of Montreal – Aureate Gloom Full Album
Battles – La Di Da Di
Leon Bridges – Coming Home

Curiosities:
Jeff Bridges – Sleeping Tapes (yes, that Jeff Bridges, pretty weird stuff)
John Frusciante – 4-Track Guitar Music (EP) (This is interesting, but pretty bad... His other album from this year is just pretty bad, and don't ask me what I think of Trickfinger)
Peaches – Rub
Hollywood Vampires - Hollywood Vampires
Arca – Mutant
Corpo-Mente – Corpo-Mente
Morgan Ågren – Batterie Deluxe
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
Electric Light Orchestra – Alone In the Universe
Komara – Komara
Zs – Xe
Death's Dynamic Shroud – I'll Try Living Like This
Vince Staples – Summertime '06

 

[Mescaleroman]

Elbow - The Take-Off and Landing of Everything
Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon
Sleaford Mods - Key Markets

 

[belair]

Currents.

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

Hop Along - Painted Shut
The Go! Team - The Scene Between

Oneothrix Point Never - Garden of Delete
Earl Sweatshirt - I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside
milo - So the Flies Don’t Come
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth

DJ Ibusal & Lobo - Olympos
Pusha T - King Push - Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude
Oddisee - The Good Fight

 

[ghostnights]

Voted Carly Rae and Tame Impala. Both albums
still on rotation.

 

[kihei]

Got nothing.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Three I like the most, didn't find a lot of stuff I wanted to listen to from this year:

1. City Calm Down - In A Restless House
2. Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool
3. Bill Ryder-Jones - West Kirby County Primary

Favourite song I think

 

[Saturated Fats]

The idea of Kendrick not winning this round gives me cold sweats.

 

[Cas]

Ahab - The Boats of the Glen Carrig
Батюшка - Литоургиiа
Crypt Sermon - Out of the Garden
Goat Torment - Sermons to Death
Gruesome - Savage Land
Lord Vigo - Under Carpathian Sun demo
Melechesh - Enki
Panopticon - Autumn Eternal
Skeletal Remains - Condemned to Misery
Sorcerer - In the Shadow of the Inverted Cross
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Visigoth - The Revenant King

I voted for Литоургиiа but the legal drama kind of sours me on it a bit. In any case, I don't know that any of the follow-on stuff, by either party, is up to the same standard and it may be a one-hit wonder, something that works once but after the novelty wears off is just mediocre at best. Nonetheless, Литоургиiа is unique in a way that none of the other albums here are - after all, I have an explicit Death clone on the list. I just don't know that I'd listen to it as much as I'd listen to these other albums, or at least no more often.

Exercises in Futility probably deserves a vote on artistic merit, but I have banished Mgła from my collection and they won't be coming back. That doesn't mean I'm casting aspersions on anyone who votes for it or listens to Mgła, mind - they crossed my personal line but I don't hold my lines for other people.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

The idea of Kendrick not winning this round gives me cold sweats.

My stuff never wins, so don't hold it against me!
(So many albums I've never heard in this year's poll)

 

[plank]

1. Hotel Parties - Futurebirds
2. Scenic Sessions - The Delines
3. Nashville Obsolete - Dave Rawlings Machine
4. Something More Than Free - Jason Isbell
5. Restless Ones - Heartless Bastards
6. Sound & Color - Alabama Shakes
7. Manifest - Asher Deaver
8. Complicated Game - James McMurtry
9. Fables - David Ramirez
10. B'lieve I'm Goin Down - Kurt Vile
11. Plays Well With Others - Buick 6
12. Yours, Dreamily - The Arcs
13. Silver Season - Israel Nash
14. Star Wars - Wilco
15. My Love is Cool - Wolf Alice
16. High on Tulsa Heat - John Moreland
17. Over and Even - Joan Shelley
18. Surf A Go Go! - The Kanaloas

 

[Saturated Fats]

Exercises in Futility probably deserves a vote on artistic merit, but I have banished Mgła from my collection and they won't be coming back. That doesn't mean I'm casting aspersions on anyone who votes for it or listens to Mgła, mind - they crossed my personal line but I don't hold my lines for other people.

Care to elaborate? You've mentioned this a few times before with popular metal/metal acts that I like. It's such a tough genre when it comes to that, but I haven't heard or read of anything negative Mgla have done. Could DM if you don't want to share it publicly. Thanks.

 

[Eisen]

Got nothing.

Same here.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Care to elaborate? You've mentioned this a few times before with popular metal/metal acts that I like. It's such a tough genre when it comes to that, but I haven't heard or read of anything negative Mgla have done. Could DM if you don't want to share it publicly. Thanks.

Same as what I said when I included Grunt in my 2009 ranking - a lot of these acts from the East are related to racist groups or imagery. It's really kind of a trend.

 

[Cas]

Same as what I said when I included Grunt in my 2009 ranking - a lot of these acts from the East are related to racist groups or imagery. It's really kind of a trend.

In this case, Mgła's two members (Mikołaj Żentara and Maciej Kowalski) have both been live musicians for Clandestine Blaze, a one-man project of Mikko Aspa, who also owns Northern Heritage Records, which is the label that releases all of Mgła's records. This is not an incidental connection - Żentara, Kowalski, and Aspa are tied at the hip financially and artistically and have been for more than fifteen years - they've also played together in Kriegsmachine.

Mikko Aspa is a Nazi. He uses anti-Semitic lyrics in his bands, he signs bands that use anti-Semitic lyrics and imagery to Northern Heritage Records (including Diaboli, Drudkh, Hate Forest, Nécropole, and Peste Noire), he plays at Nazi concerts and festivals with his bands and with other Nazi bands, he holds fundraisers for Nazi murderers, and he sells Nazi paraphernalia at his record shop in Helsinki.

Aside from their connections to Aspa and others, Żentarahas a side project called Leichenhalle that released an album titled Jedenfrei. You can probably guess what that means. Mgła has also used anti-Semitic lyrics before, though they've tried to move away from overt references to Nazi and far-right politics as they've become more commercially successful.

Basically, Mgła isn't just "related" to racist groups or imagery - they're surrounded by them.

They do produce excellent music - even after a year, riffs from Exercises in Futility pop into my head on occasion. I'm not going to say that someone who enjoys Mgła is a Nazi, because that's ridiculous. I'm just saying that I could not in good conscience listen to their stuff or promote them after I found out all of this, but I don't hold anyone else to the same.

Unfortunately, black metal has a racism problem. I'd love to stamp it out, but that's going to take a lot of time and effort.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

In this case, Mgła's two members (Mikołaj Żentara and Maciej Kowalski) have both been live musicians for Clandestine Blaze, a one-man project of Mikko Aspa, who also owns Northern Heritage Records, which is the label that releases all of Mgła's records. This is not an incidental connection - Żentara, Kowalski, and Aspa are tied at the hip financially and artistically and have been for more than fifteen years - they've also played together in Kriegsmachine.

Mikko Aspa is a Nazi. He uses anti-Semitic lyrics in his bands, he signs bands that use anti-Semitic lyrics and imagery to Northern Heritage Records (including Diaboli, Drudkh, Hate Forest, Nécropole, and Peste Noire), he plays at Nazi concerts and festivals with his bands and with other Nazi bands, he holds fundraisers for Nazi murderers, and he sells Nazi paraphernalia at his record shop in Helsinki.

Aside from their connections to Aspa and others, Żentarahas a side project called Leichenhalle that released an album titled Jedenfrei. You can probably guess what that means. Mgła has also used anti-Semitic lyrics before, though they've tried to move away from overt references to Nazi and far-right politics as they've become more commercially successful.

Basically, Mgła isn't just "related" to racist groups or imagery - they're surrounded by them.

They do produce excellent music - even after a year, riffs from Exercises in Futility pop into my head on occasion. I'm not going to say that someone who enjoys Mgła is a Nazi, because that's ridiculous. I'm just saying that I could not in good conscience listen to their stuff or promote them after I found out all of this, but I don't hold anyone else to the same.

Unfortunately, black metal has a racism problem. I'd love to stamp it out, but that's going to take a lot of time and effort.

Black metal, noise, industrial,... a lot of it is for show, but I wasn't aware of these overt affiliations. Well, this year, I guess nothing is a surprise anymore.

 

[Saturated Fats]

In this case, Mgła's two members (Mikołaj Żentara and Maciej Kowalski) have both been live musicians for Clandestine Blaze, a one-man project of Mikko Aspa, who also owns Northern Heritage Records, which is the label that releases all of Mgła's records. This is not an incidental connection - Żentara, Kowalski, and Aspa are tied at the hip financially and artistically and have been for more than fifteen years - they've also played together in Kriegsmachine.

Mikko Aspa is a Nazi. He uses anti-Semitic lyrics in his bands, he signs bands that use anti-Semitic lyrics and imagery to Northern Heritage Records (including Diaboli, Drudkh, Hate Forest, Nécropole, and Peste Noire), he plays at Nazi concerts and festivals with his bands and with other Nazi bands, he holds fundraisers for Nazi murderers, and he sells Nazi paraphernalia at his record shop in Helsinki.

Aside from their connections to Aspa and others, Żentarahas a side project called Leichenhalle that released an album titled Jedenfrei. You can probably guess what that means. Mgła has also used anti-Semitic lyrics before, though they've tried to move away from overt references to Nazi and far-right politics as they've become more commercially successful.

Basically, Mgła isn't just "related" to racist groups or imagery - they're surrounded by them.

They do produce excellent music - even after a year, riffs from Exercises in Futility pop into my head on occasion. I'm not going to say that someone who enjoys Mgła is a Nazi, because that's ridiculous. I'm just saying that I could not in good conscience listen to their stuff or promote them after I found out all of this, but I don't hold anyone else to the same.

Unfortunately, black metal has a racism problem. I'd love to stamp it out, but that's going to take a lot of time and effort.

Well said. Disappointing. I really enjoy a lot of the darker, more extreme side of metal - but the more I look into who I'm listening to, the more upsetting it becomes.

 

[Xelebes]

Black metal, noise, industrial,... a lot of it is for show, but I wasn't aware of these overt affiliations. Well, this year, I guess nothing is a surprise anymore.

Big reason for the antifa movements in the gabber and hardcore techno scene the last few decades.

 

[Ouroboros]

Bad time to post a list with both Mgła and Nécropole on it I guess.

Tangerine Dream - Official Bootleg Vol. 1 - Reims Cathedral 1974/Mozartsaal, Mannheim 1976 [Ambient]
Księżyc - Rabbit Eclipse [Folk/Drone]
Mgła - Exercises In Futility [Black Metal]
Daudadagr - Nordanland [Black Metal]
Nécropole - Ostara [Demo] [Black Metal]
Olivia Block - Aberration Of Light [Electroacoustic/Ambient/Noise
Alva Noto - Xerrox Vol. 3 [Ambient/Glitch/Drone]